Spreka
A Germanic language of people who span from the Sea of Azov to the Eastern end of the Alps, south to Thrace and Northern Macedonia, approximately as high as Byzantium, north as high as Kiev, maybe ut to the Pripyat river, but almost no trace of them is found higher than the source of the Teteriv river. Mages from one of these people have created orcs. First, as a way of making strong soldiers for an army. Then, things got out of hand and the orcs ran away. They kept linguistic ties with Spreka but the orc language (Parman) is very different, partly due to the mutilation they suffered to become the monsters they now are. These people are also (unofficially) found in the universe of the French tabletop roleplaying web-series Aventures . The orc language was based on the gibberish during one live session of the roleplaying web-series where they encountered an orc and the mage of the group communicated extensively with him. The details for the creation of the language can be found on the Tumblr for the language (in French). The people speaking Spreka are completely unattested in the canon of the series, but posts on the Aventures forums (fr) as well as their use in fan-made roleplaying campaigns have been made. They are part of a large universe in a long series of cross-media stories still in working progress. Classification and Dialects There are some different dialects but they are very close. The differences are mostly minor pronunciation changes, small spelling differences and very sporadic lexicon differences in the precise meaning of words, but they have similar general meaning. The main difference might be in foreign influences. There are dialects with Slavic influences, others with Greek ones, some with Celtic influences, and minor variations due to distance. Phonology Consonants The rhotic sound can be both a trill or a flap without changing the meaning. For pronunciation reasons, however, some are only pronounced as trills. However, most rhotic sounds can be changed from one to another to give a certain effect and depending on the context (whispering, singing, etc.) To be honest, for the phonemes in brackets, this was a mistake from my part. I started out making a phonology that I wanted for the conlang and that fit with it being linked to the Parman language, but it turned out that in the way I derived words from Proto-Germanic, bilabial fricatives moved to being plosives and dental fricatives moved to being dental (and then later alveolar) plosives. So while technically /f/, /v/ and /θ/ are possible, I hardly see how they could happen. Appart from softened alveolar plosives or in dialects with influences from other languages (I'm thinking mostly Greek), these will be barely used. Vowels Diphthongs: aʊ, aɪ, εɪ Phonotactics It is rare to see two vowels following each other. There are only three diphthongs (aʊ, aɪ, εɪ). One example is rikiun ''(/'ri.kɪ.on/) a realm, major division of a kingdom, a region in a way. There are generally only a couple in a Kingdom, ruled by the relatives (or most trusted people) of the king. Two consecutive consonants are rare. Even if words can be spelled that way, there will most often be a schwa added in between when speaking. This is however mostly seen in a final vowel cluster. There are few three-consonant clusters allowed. One is the , realised by changing the alveolar /s/ fricative to a post-alveolar /∫/ fricative. Other three-consonant clusters will in most cases have a schwa added, generally in between the first and the second consonant. Writing System The vowels are shown as a set of two different vowels because they are pronounced differently depending on whether or not they are stressed. The first vowel is the stressed version, the second is the unstressed. The diphthongs are marked as long vowels (ː) but this is not always respected. Unstressed diphthongs will often be found as short, depending on the dialect. The stress in a word in Spreka is always on the first syllable. All these are simply the latin transcription of the alphabet, which is a highly deformed version of the Greek alphabet Grammar Nouns Declension Four cases: nominative, accusative, genitive and dative. Three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. Adjectives decline like the noun that precedes them (nouns come before adjective). The parts in brackets are generally used only if the word ends in a consonant. Articles Definite The definite article is a suffix different for each gender. * there are some exceptions such as "darkisnøs" (darkness) which is then "darkisnøsmä" Indefinite The indefinite article is a preposition, much like in English. There is one for every gender: # ''Feminine - anat # Masculine - an # Neuter - anar Verbs There are 3 different tenses, each with 4 moods, resulting in a total of 12 tables of conjugaison. Most verbs are regular and have both a transitive and an intransitive version. The main verb will be the stem follow by the -un suffix of the infinitive. The other will be the stem followed by a specific suffix follow by the -un suffix of the infinitive. That specific suffix will not be the same depending to which group the verb belongs. There is: -an, -en, -in, -on, -un, -øn and -ij. Examples: # Etun (to eat), etanun (to cause to eat, feed) # Kønun (to know, recognise) kønenun (to make known, to teach to recognise) # Branun (to scratch), braninun (to cause to scratch) # Gadun (to hold together intransitive, to be bound together), gadonun (to hold together transitive, to bind together) # Baltun (to be strong, invincible, fearless, bold), baltunun (to make strong, invincible, fearless, bold) # Gødun (to become good, gooden), gødønun (to make good, improve) # Polun (to feel, taste), polijun (to make feel, to taste like) Some verbs, however, have an irregular form as they descend from verbs that had clear transitive/intransitive forms, such as "säkønun" and "sïkønun" which are, respectively, to cause to sink and to sink. Conjugaison 1 the final d is sometimes devoiced so it can be pronounced /e̞d/ or /e̞t/ and /əd/ or /ət/ respectively 2 to ease pronunciation an unwritten schwa is added between penultimate and last consonants so it is pronounced, /e̞dəm/, /e̞dəd/, /e̞dən/ and /aməs/ respectively The past passive form is done by using the auxiliary "ørtun" (to become, come to pass) with a past participle. This verb is also used to make the future, by adding the infinitive afterwards. Irregular Verbs There are some irregular verbs such as benun (to become), dønun (to do), ølun (to want, desire, wish), zanun (to be), gønun (to walk, go) and skolun (to owe, shall). Syntax The syntax is a very rigid SVO with the verb always in second position. The subject may have to move after the verb because of that. Lexicon Example text